House Republican Budget: Even Worse Than The President’s

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) issued the following statement today on the House Republican budget.

“Last month, Democrats were disappointed by the President’s budget, which proposed another round of massive tax cuts while cutting domestic appropriations over ten years by more than $100 billion below the amount needed to keep pace with inflation.

“As bad as the President’s budget was, the budget that House Republicans are proposing is considerably worse. The Republican budget:

Requires authorizing committees to cut mandatory spending by at least $98 billion. These cuts will fall on agriculture, veterans programs, student loans, civil service retirement, and other priority programs.

Cuts spending for domestic appropriated programs by $244 billion relative to the amount needed to keep pace with inflation. These cuts are twice as large as the President’s cuts, and are distributed across nearly every part of the budget, including education, environmental protection, and job training.

Provides only $28 billion in new money for prescription drugs. Any increase above that level must be offset with entitlement cuts that almost certainly would come from Medicare and Medicaid.

Underfunds the entire government to pay for the President’s $1.35 trillion of new tax cuts, which will do little to help the economy.

“House Republicans have built their budget around their single-minded goal of enacting large and fiscally irresponsible tax cuts. In fact, these program cuts are only needed in order to pay for their $1.35 trillion tax cut.”